White House “big data” study to reveal potential for discrimination

Job- and loan-seekers could be unfairly targeted by "clusters" of economic data.

Next week, White House counselor John Podesta is set to present the results of a 90-day "big data" study, commissioned by President Barack Obama in January as part of a wave of NSA reform announcements. According to the Associated Press, Podesta's study will hinge largely on the discriminatory potential of the mountains of data accumulated by public and private firms alike.

The study's results could mean changes to federal anti-discrimination laws, particularly in the case of financial and employment policies.

The AP report used private data clustering as an example of potential abuse, describing customers lumped into an "Ethnic Second-City Struggler" category. Loan applicants could be lumped into that category based on geographic and social-media information, flagging them for higher-interest loans than they'd be offered as anonymous, off-the-street customers.

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Additionally, job applicants could be pre-declined based on the locations and durations of recent residencies, among other factors. Podesta didn't speak to these specific examples of discrimination, nor did he confirm what recommendations he'll make to the president in the wake of the study, other than a desire to update the Electronic Communications and Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986, which he co-authored. (ECPA reform has been languishing in Congress for quite some time now.)

That speech also hinted at the kinds of discrimination stories we may expect from Podesta's report, including the story of a crowd-sourced pothole detection app launched in Boston.

"Because poor people and the elderly were less likely to carry smartphones, let alone download the app, the app wound up systematically directing city services to wealthier neighborhoods," Podesta said. "We need to pay careful attention to what unexpected outcomes the use of big data might lead to, and how to remedy any unintended discrimination or inequality that may result."